Overview
This lecture explains the structure, roles, and critical perspectives on the UK criminal justice system, highlighting its key agencies and sociological debates about its fairness and function.
Structure and Agencies of the Criminal Justice System
- The criminal justice system includes agencies and institutions responsible for enforcing laws and delivering justice in the UK.
- Main goals are to protect the public, reduce offending, punish offenders, and uphold the law.
- The police enforce laws and protect the public, with specialized departments for different crimes.
- The Ministry of Justice oversees courts, prisons, probation, and family courts, ensuring punishment and law compliance.
- The Home Office organizes the police, manages migration laws, passports, asylum, trafficking, and terrorism offenses.
- The courts deliver justice, with magistrates’ courts for minor offenses and youth courts for offenders under 17.
- The Crown Prosecution Service decides which cases go to trial and represents the state in prosecutions.
- The Serious Fraud Office investigates complex fraud, cyber crime, and corporate crime.
- The prison service manages incarceration and rehabilitation of offenders.
Theoretical Perspectives
- Functionalists believe the system upholds societal norms and values by punishing offenders.
- Marxists argue the system serves the interests of the ruling class and protects their power.
- Critical views suggest different agencies may disadvantage ethnic minorities and lower-status groups.
Issues of Inequality and Critique
- Phillips and Bowling argue the system disadvantages ethnic minorities through biased procedures.
- The Macpherson Inquiry found the Metropolitan Police institutionally racist after the Stephen Lawrence case.
- The Lammy Report (2017) found disproportionate numbers of ethnic minorities in custody compared to the UK population.
- Feminists argue the system is patriarchal, often underestimating female criminality but increasingly giving harsher sentences to women for male-associated crimes.
- Less than 5% of the UK prison population was female as of June 2020.
Key Terms & Definitions
- Criminal Justice System — Agencies and institutions responsible for law enforcement and justice delivery.
- Ministry of Justice — Manages courts, prisons, probation, and family legal matters.
- Home Office — Oversees police organization, migration, and security issues.
- Crown Prosecution Service — Decides on prosecutions and represents the state in court.
- Serious Fraud Office — Investigates complex financial and corporate crimes.
- Institutional Racism — Systemic biases within institutions disadvantaging certain groups.
Action Items / Next Steps
- Review functionalist, Marxist, and feminist perspectives in more detail.
- Read the Lammy Report (2017) summary for key findings on racial inequality.
- Prepare notes on the structure and role of each agency in the criminal justice system.